Ahead of vote counting, Election Commission to hold ‘peace meetings’ across Tripura

The counting day will be a dry day. Meetings are being set up with political parties, and temporary booth offices, flags and banners are being removed to do away with flashpoints of violence.

Though a few incidents of post-poll violence have occurred, chief electoral officer Kiran Dinkarrao Gitte said the violence was much less compared with the past. (Express/Debraj Deb)

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Just five days before the counting of votes polled on February 16, the Election Commission announced Saturday that it would hold “peace meetings” on February 27 and 28 across Tripura. At these meetings to be held in areas adjacent to polling stations, voters, journalists, professionals, activists and others will discuss ways to ensure peace.

“Whatever result comes on March 2, it will be democratic and we will have to respect it. No one should engage in violence. We are running these peace meetings with the slogan ‘Amra ohingshar pokkhe, Amra shantir pokkhe’ (We are on the side of non-violence, we are on the side of peace),” chief electoral officer Kiran Dinkarrao Gitte said.

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Though a few incidents of post-poll violence have occurred, Gitte said the violence was much less compared with the past. “We don’t want even a single incident. We have spread a lot of awareness and hope all our apprehensions will turn out to be false. But we can’t afford to remain complacent,” he said.

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As last-minute measures, meetings are being set up with political parties, and temporary booth offices, flags and banners are being removed to do away with “flashpoints” that often become the epicentres of violence. Counting will take place across 21 locations in the eight districts.

The counting day will be a dry day. Measures have also been taken to facilitate the smooth conduct of CBSE and Tripura Board of Secondary Education examinations. Three-tier security will be provided around counting halls, with the outermost barricade set up by police, the second ring by Tripura State Rifles personnel, and the third layer—outside strongrooms and counting halls—by central police forces. Electronic voting machines will be taken from strongrooms to counting halls under continuous CCTV surveillance and all counting halls will have non-stop video coverage.

Also Read in Pulse | Post-poll violence in Tripura raises concerns about results day

At least five incidents of violence were reported during the polling hours on February 16. Nearly 30 people were arrested in 22 cases of post-poll violence that left nearly 20 people injured and one dead.

Gitte said that he, chief secretary J K Sinha and director-general of police Amitabha Ranjan had held meetings in different districts in the past four or five days and put all necessary security arrangements in place. The meetings were held at the state, district, subdivisional and returning officer levels as well as involving candidates of different political parties.

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Hundred companies of central armed police forces are still stationed in the state, apart from 11,000 police and TSR personnel.

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